You'd be interested in the author Joseph Campbell's book 'Hero with a Thousand Faces.' Some things pop up in mythologies that have no connection with each other. I plan to write about this later. Also, thanks for the suggestion. I'll work on that.
I mean parts of the story, not necessarily the names. I think/hope that I can show that in future posts.
YES! Campbell. While I haven't read that book, I did watch the tv series of interviews with him by Bill Moyers long ago. Loved it.
Joseph Campbell lived on the producers estate during the production of the first Star Wars movie. The movie has several reminders of medieval heroic literature. The series has been going downhill since.
Thanks, Bobby. Sorry for the delay in my answer. At first I was not sure about this, but now I'm quite enthusiastic.
SECOND “LESSON:” WHO WERE THESE PEOPLE Here I dip into my studies, teaching, and research in and of Germanic Philology. Before I start boring everyone with the philology, I'l mention something that I discovered TODAY!!!!(A few days ago; I've been procrastinating.) I was looking for a download of The Words of the High One, from the Poetic Edda (More about that shortly), when I discovered that a translation thereof by the American/British poet W. H. Auden had been recently post humorously published. Here it is: http://vta.gamall-steinn.org/havamal.htm. I'll get into this later, but anyone interested now can go to the Wiki piece: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1vam%C3%A1l . Now, back to today's “Lesson.” The world's largest language group is the Indo-European group. Languages in India derived from Sanskrit East, European languages derived from Latin, Celtic, and Pro-to-Germanic West. There are theories about how this came into being, but I'll go with the one that there was a culture somewhere in central-Eurasia, that grew, spread out, and migrated in both directions. We know that it was landlocked, since there are cognates (Words that are obviously related in different languages: Wasser-water, two three-zwei drei (English German).They are related to agriculture and animal husbandry, but none dealing with sea-faring or ships. It's hard to say when the European groups arrived. Perhaps the Celts were the first, because Celtic place names are all over Europe. Latin evolved obviously from the group settling in Italy, and the Germanic group settled first in and south of what is now Denmark. (If this gets too tedious, skip it. It isn't all that important.) The Germanics might have been the last to arrive. I've seen numbers around 10,000 BC. We know that the three groups, West, German, Dutch/Flemish, English; North: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and East (extinct) Gothic, Vandal, and (Some have argued) Lombard. Evolved centuries after the arrival in Europe, more specifically, where Denmark is today. We know this because of the “Germanic Sound Shift.” Specifically, the Indoeuropean 'stops.' p, t, and k, changed to 'sibilants;' f, th, and ch (not 'ch' as in 'child.' We don't have the sound in English. We did a few centuries ago, as seen in words like 'eight,' 'brought,' and other words with 'gh.' The 'k' sound stops the air flow with the tongue in the back of the mouth. This 'ch' 'gh' sound just restricts it, similar to 't' and 'th.' Consider the cognates 'brought' (English) and 'brachte' (German) or night Nacht) Examples: pater-father (Fater-German. German no longer has the 'th' sound.) tres-three, octo eight-acht. These shound changes show up in all three groups, North, West, and East (Gothic only; we have nothing preserved from the Vandal language.) (There's a 'High German Sound Shift: Book-Buch, water-Wasser. Ship-Schiff, but thas has no place here.), which shows that there was only one group at first. If this hasn't bored you enough, I'll write about the “Volkerwanderung” later. This is about the migration of the tribes from the original home in the north. If anybody is interested in this stuff, I would be thrilled to answer questions and add to this.
Seems mythology isn't all you know about the Gaelic or Frankish people's. I like to study that at times. I don't agree that the Italians were involved very much in the Scandanavian peoples hereitage or language.The Norse and Franks were closer related than the italian,but the Italians do have lots of their own intersting history. There is also ample proof that the Vikings were some of the first to find America's, Canada after sacking Rome from the north. I'm sure there would be plenty of corrections about this though.
Maria, I'm thrilled to see that you're interested in this. I had kind of given up. I'll work on some of the things you bring up, and post them here. In the meantime, here's the "Volkerwanderung_ (The 'o' should have the two dots). It means the 'Migration of peoples." I'll study up on the things you mention and be back soon. The wiki article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migration_Period is good. Elsewhere I've mentioned Gregory of Tours 'History of the Franks.' It's tedious reading, but interesting because the Gregory lived during the time he wrote about. about. https://www.ryansetliff.online/medieval/Gregory-of-Tours-History-of-the-Franks.pdf Please please please!!! ask questions and tell me if you disagree or don't understand!!!